Governor fob



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEO. IV. RAINS, OF NEW'BURGH, NEW' YORK.

GOVERNOR FOR STEAM-ENGINES.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 28,502, dated May 29, 1860.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Gnonon W Rams, of Newbur h, in the county of Orangeand State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in theMeans of Transmitting the Action of the Governor of a Steam-Engine orother Motor to its Regulating-Valve; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of thisspecification, in which- Figure l is an elevation partly in section ofthe governor and regulating valve of a steam engine illustrating myinvention. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of the same. Fig. 3 is a faceview of the toothed wheel on the valve stem. Fig. 4 is a side viewexhibiting a modification of the above meir tioned wheel.

Similar letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in theseveral figures.

The objects of my invention is to apply the governor in connection withthe throttle or regulating valve that the necessary movement of the saidvalve may be imparted to it by the rotary motion of the governor and notdirectly by the act of the charge of the planes of revolution thereof,such movement may be effected very quickly, and that as soon as it hasbeen effected the governor shall detach itself from the valve and remaindetached therefrom till further action becomes necessary to regulate theengine or motor.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention I willproceed to describe its construction and operation.

The governor represented is of the kind commonly known as the ballgovernor.

A, is the main spindle fitted to hearings in the top and bottom of a boxB.

C, C, are the balls; D, D, are the arms to which the balls are attached,connected at their upper ends with the spindle in the usual manner andconnected at their lower ends by links E, E, with the short elbow leversI, I, which work on fulcra a, a, in a cross head F, that is secured tothe spindle, the said elbow levers being notched to receive the ends ofa pin Z), which passes loosely through vertical slots 0, c, in thespindle the said pin being fast in a rod G, which is fitted to worklongitudinally inside of the spindle A.

H, is the sleeve fitted to slide up and down the lower part of spindleA, in the usual manner and arranged within the box B, and connected withthe rod G, by a pin cl, passing through it and the said rod, and throughslots c, c, in the sides of the spindle, the said rod G, and pins Z),and (Z, making such a connection of the sleeve H, with the elbow leversI, I, that the said levers will cause the said sleeve to move up anddown the spindle A, as the balls rise and fall with variations in thevelocity of revolution of the spindle, and making such a connection ofthe said sleeve with the main spindle A, that it will rotate with thesaid spindle.

The arrangement of the parts of the governor are such that the jointsall form nearly right angles and the links E, E, are connected at thecenters of the balls and hence the movement of the sleeve up and downthe rod is caused to be nearly equal to the mov ment of the balls towardand from the spindle.

On the upper part of the sleeve H, there are arranged directly oppositeeach other, two teeth f, f, of a ratchet like character, but beveled ontheir lower sides like the teeth of a miter gear; and on the lower partof the said sleeve there are two teeth 7"", f, precisely similar to f,7, except that. their bevel is on the upper side. The faces 5, 5, ofthese teeth have all the same direction. Opposite to the space betweenthese teeth there is arranged in suitable bearings the horizontalspindle or shaft J, which may constitute the stem of the throttle orregulating valve K, or may have any suitable connection with such valvethat will enable it to open and close the said valve by a small portionsay about one fourth of the revolution of the said spindle or shaft.This spindle or shaft J, carries a miter toothed wheel L, which is ofsuch size rela tively to the distance between the teeth f, f, and thosef, f, and so arranged relatively to the sleeve H, that by the movementof the said sleeve up or down the governor spindle eit-herthe teeth 7,f, or those f, 7, may be caused to act upon the teeth of the said wheelin their revolution or that both sets of teeth f, f, and f, f, may clearthe said wheel in their revolution. The teeth 9, g, and g, g, of thewheel H, are of the same ratchet like character to those f, f, and f, f.They extend only a portion 0 the way around the wheel leaving a blankspace 29, p, as shown in Fig. 3, and half of them g, g, face in onedirection and the other half 9, g, in the opposite direction,

so that those 9, g, willface the teeth f, f,

and those 9, 9, will face the teeth f, f,

and they are. so arranged relatively to the opening of the valve thatwhen the valve is about half way open the series 9, 9, oc-

cupy a similar or nearly similar position above the center to that whichthe series 10 g, g, occupy below the center'as illustrated by Fig. 4;.

The operation is as follows: WVhile the engine is running at the desireduniform speeds the sleeve H, is held at such a height that neither theteeth f, f, nor thosef, 7,

will come into contact with the teeth of the wheel L, but in the firstrevolution of the governor at a slightly diminished speed the sleevewill be lowered and one of the teeth f, f, come into operation on one ofthe teeth g, 9, but without entering the whole depth of the said toothand so turn the wheel slightly in a direction to give more opening tothe valve, or in the first revolution at a speed above what is desiredthe sleeve will be raised and one of the teeth f, f,,will

come into operation on one of the teeth 9,

g, and so turn the wheel in a direction to give less opening to thevalve. If the movement thus given to the valve be sufficient,

the balls will at once resume their proper plane of revolution and thesleeve be restored to the position in which its teeth do not act uponthe wheel L, andthe valve remains stationary and entirely disconnectedfrom the governor so long as the same uniform speed is maintained.Should, however, the small movement given to the valve by this operationof a single tooth of the sleeve be insufficient the sleeve will continueto descend or ascend as the case 'may be, and the other tooth f, or f,of the sleeve or the same tooth in its next revolution will act again onthe same tooth g, or g, of the wheel L, or on the next tooth of the sameseries and produce a further movement of the valve in the samedirection. By the above operation the valve will be opened gradually,but in case of a verysudden change of speed, as when the whole orgreater part of the work is thrown off or on the engine, the sleeve isat once raised or lowered so far that one of its teeth 7, f, or f, f,will engage with one of the teeth g, or g, g, of the wheel L, to theirfull depth and so produce a suflicient move- ,ment of the said wheel toclose or open the l valve entirely during a small portion of therevolution of the engine, at the same time bringing the blank. space 0",'r, opposite to the teeth 7, f, or f, f, which have operated and jpreventing any further action on the valve 1 till the other set of teethon the sleeve are brought into operation. This blank spacerZ,

0?; on the wheel L, is of great importance to the successful operationof the. governor.

made to efiect the regulation always at the The whole work thusperformed by the governor is simply to move the sleeve and its teeth f,f, and f, f, up and down the spindle in which respect the operation isthe same as when a pair of miter gears are used upon the spindle inconnection with the miter gear on the valve stem, but in other respectsthe operation is very different, as a small, variation of speed isfollowed by a graduated movement of the valve which is in proportion tosuch variation and such movement is effected almost instantaneously andthe gov-' ernor at once disconnected from the valve without waiting forthe change in the plane of revolution of the balls consequent upon theaction of the valve, to'take place; and if the governor is driven bytoothed gearing which it always should be, a proper arrangement of theteeth f, f, and f, 7, may be time the engine is passing its center atwhich time the change of opening of'the valve will have the greatesteffect.

The valve employed may be of any kind that is sufiiciently balanced andotherwise so constructed that it will remain in any position in which itmay be left by the governor.

The teeth of the wheel L, may be fitted to slide in and out from thesaid wheel and have springs applied behind them in such a manner thatthey may yield and allow the teeth f, f, and f, f, to pass them in caseof their riding over each other. This is illustrated in Fig. 4, where m,m, representthe sliding teeth and n, a, the springs applied betweenthem. Or instead of the teeth of the wheel L, being applied in this waythe teeth of the sleeve H, may be applied in a similar manner. 7 a

It some cases it may be desirable only to have a singletooth f, on theupper part of the sleeve H, and a single one 7", 011 the lower partthereof and in other cases it may be desirable to have more than two ofeach of such teeth.

I do not claim broadly the use of bevel gearing to transmitthe action ofthe gov- 1grnor to a throttle valve or regulating valve;

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is.

The employment in combination with a wheel L, having teeth on a portiononly of its circumference applied in connection with the regulatingvalve, substantially as herein described of two teeth or sets of teeth7, 7, and f, f, not forming continuous series, on the governor sleeve,the whole arranged and operating substantially as herein specified. 125

GEO. WV. RAINS.

Witnesses L. H. BLAOKMAN, SAM EL STANTON.

